British Warship Losses in the Ironclad Era, 1860?1919 - By David Hepper

British Warship Losses in the Ironclad Era, 1860–1919 DAVID HEPPER 168 pp., 33 b&w illustrations Chatham Publishing , Park House, 1 Russell Gardens, London NW11 9NN , 2006 , £25 (hbk) , ISBN 1861762739 This volume is a very welcome follow-on to David Hepper's British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859 (Boudriot Publications, 1994), which was immediately recognised as the essential guide to the subject. Like its predecessor it takes the form of a chronological listing of all warships lost at sea, with causes ranging from enemy action to human error, by way of stress of weather and design flaws. After examining the Court Martial record, and re-checking other sources—including German evidence and recent discoveries by marine archaeologists—Hepper provides a clear narrative of the events surrounding each casualty, the human cost, and the response of the Admiralty to any significant issues highlighted by the official investigation. This record reminds readers that going to sea in ships is a difficult and dangerous business, and that even the most professional seafaring organisations cannot avoid losses. While the Admiralty Board did not overrule sentences that they did not consider correct, they were quick to change the rules of the service. When the Court Martial acquitted Captain Edward Sotheby of any blame for the stranding of the brand new 100-gun steam-battleship HMS Conqueror on Rum Cay in December 1860, and blamed the sailing-master, the Board changed the regulations to ensure that in future primary responsibility for the safe navigation of the ship rested with the captain, not the master. The Admiralty made a clear distinction between the unavoidable hazards of the sea and of conducting realistic exercises, and incompetence and carelessness. The career implications of a Court Martial could be profound. The level of losses is evident from the division of the book, the first 23 pages deal with 1850 to August 1914, the next 121 are required to deal with World War One, while eight more are needed for 1919. Down to August 1914 only one vessel was lost in action, and that by running aground in an ill-charted harbour; the others, over 80, were in many cases caused by navigational error, uncharted hazards, carelessness, and poor design, notable examples of the last coming with the capsize of HMS Captain, and when the pioneer turbine-destroyer HMS Cobra broke up in heavy seas. Several old wooden warships were burnt while serving as training hulks in the major rivers, a fate HMS Bombay escaped by catching fire while still on active service in 1864. The loss of the Bombay is one of many disasters recorded in 16 pages of paintings, drawings and photographs, many of which are unfamiliar. Among the tragic losses of the Victorian era none is more poignant and less well-known than that of the sail-training ship HMS Atalanta which disappeared in the mid-Atlantic in February 1880. Coming hard on the heels of the loss of HMS Eurydice on 24 March 1878 the loss of a second ship full of cadets brought a rapid end to sail training in the Royal Navy. The First World War resulted in a quantum leap in ship losses, the obvious peaks being the battle of Jutland, where six large armoured ships were lost, and the Dardanelles, where another five were sunk. The Jutland wrecks have been located, most recently that of HMS Defence, and they have helped historians understand the causes of the catastrophic magazine explosions which caused five of the ships to sink with immense loss of life. However, Hepper's book is more valuable as a record of the reality of war at sea in the early-20th century. Simply by opening the book at random and analysing the losses recorded on any two pages reveals a steady stream of small, auxiliary ships sunk by mines and torpedoes. For example pp.94–5 record 13 losses between 20 June and 7 July 1917, eight minesweepers, two sloops, two destroyers and an anti-submarine decoy vessel. Two were torpedoed, nine were mined, one was abandoned to avoid capture and one ran aground. This incessant small-scale attritional warfare tested the resources and the resolve of the Royal Navy for four years. Inevitably there were examples of incompetence, but rather more of heroism. Among the real heroes were the trawler and drifter commanders who kept working despite heavy losses. Furthermore, in war not all losses are reported and publicised. When the merchant ship Rutherglen reported ramming and sinking a U-boat in the southern Irish Sea on 2 March 1918 it quickly became clear to the Admiralty that her victim was HMS H5. Rather than admitting the fact, however, it was decided to reward the merchant skipper, to encourage other merchant captains to take active measures to sink U-boats. He was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his action. This deception was only possible because, like so many First World War submarines, H5 sank with all hands. Even the end of the war brought no relief, with active operations in the Baltic and the White Sea against Bolshevik forces, and minesweeping ships continued to sink throughout the year. Eleven more sloops, trawlers and drifters were lost to mines, together with a light cruiser and a destroyer. This is a major work of reference, joining David Hepper's book on the sailing era as an essential tool for anyone who needs to identify the wreck of a British warship. It is curious to note that in a work of dedicated scholarship the only quibble concerns a ship that did not sink. In his preface Hepper refers to the grounding of HMS Nottingham on Lord Howe Island in July 2002, to point up the continuing danger of marine losses in the 21st century, but places the island close to New Zealand, which might interest the government of Australia. While the rock was well-charted it had been covered by a badly placed coffee mug

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